views
Live updates: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris election news | CNN Politics
• Final push: Tomorrow is Election Day.Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are in battleground states that could determine who wins the presidency.
• Dueling events: Harris is holding five events in Pennsylvania, concluding the day in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Trump is visiting three states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania and will wrap with a rally in Michigan.
• Voter resources: See CNN’s voter handbook for how to vote in your area, and read up on the 2024 candidates and their proposals on key issues. Catch up here on how US elections work.
Law enforcement responded Monday to address a briefly tense situation with poll observers at an elections office in Cobb County, Georgia.
Election observers refused to move from seats that were reserved for voters and election officials called on law enforcement to respond, according to Cobb County Communications Director Ross Cavitt. By the time deputies arrived, the situation had been diffused, Cavitt said.
A nonpartisan election observer who did not wish to be named described the GOP poll observers as “confrontational” with staff. In one incident, election staff intervened to try to stop observers from photographing a voter, the observer said.
The observer praised election staffers for working in stressful conditions to address issues with poll watchers, saying, “I think there has been a great deal of work trying to prevent this from having any intimidating or uncomfortable effect on voters.”
Salleigh Grubbs, the chair of the Cobb County GOP who has shared falsehoods about the 2020 election, pointed the finger at local officials, saying the situation was tense because “there’s definitely an attempt by some people with the board of elections to not have people observe like they should.” She said the incident was about an observer trying to capture a photo of a ballot they found to be “unusual.”
Link Copied!
Former President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, November 4.
Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pittsburgh the day before the election.
Trump’s rally comes as both he and Vice President Kamala Harris criss-cross Pennsylvania, considered the most crucial battleground state, in the closing hours of this campaign.
Link Copied!
While not his final rally of the evening, aides of former President Donald Trump are describing his speech in Pittsburgh as his “closing message” to the American people.
In the remarks expected to occur this hour, Trump is expected to focus on the issues that his campaign believe can help propel him to the White House including inflation, immigration and crime.
Trump’s event in the critical battleground state will also feature some high-profile speakers like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Megyn Kelly.
Following the final keystone state rally, Trump will end his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he ended both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. That speech is now not expected to occur until at least 11:30 p.m. ET because Trump has been running late.
Link Copied!
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Monday said this election will allow voters to shape the future.
“We get an opportunity tomorrow to shape the future for generations to come,” he said to supporters at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “We get a chance to elect a new generation of leadership and have Kamala Harris lead us forward.”
“We’re running like everything is on the line, because it is,” he said as the crowd cheered.
He said the last 107 days of the Harris campaign have been “an incredible journey,” and credited the vice president for bringing “back the joy to politics.”
Throughout her career as a prosecutor, an attorney general, a senator and a vice president, Harris has had “one client the entire time — the people of this country,” Walz said.
Link Copied!
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is speaking at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Remember: Wisconsin is a key battleground state. Four of the last six presidential elections were decided in the state by less than a percentage point on the presidential level. One of the most politically divided states in the nation, Wisconsin reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022.
Democrats are hoping to maximize turnout in Milwaukee and Madison, while cutting the margins in the “WOW” counties – the Republican stronghold counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington that surround Milwaukee.
Link Copied!
Former President Donald Trump on Monday suggested his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, should be put “in the ring” with former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson.
During a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump was discussing the controversy involving women’s boxing at the Olympics this year. He falsely said two boxers were men who “transitioned into womanhood.”
“Did you see the two boxers? Did you see the two boxers - they were men, they transitioned into womanhood. And they fought a very good Italian. They have women’s boxing in the Olympics. They fought a very good Italian young lady, and boom, she got hit with just the left jab,” Trump said.
Trump was apparently addressing the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who became the subject of a storm of online abuse after she defeated Italian boxer Angela Carini in just 46 seconds in a preliminary match.
Khelif, who is not transgender, was subject to a storm of transphobic abuse because she had failed a so-called “gender test” by a now-discredited boxing federation. Her country, Algeria, has strict anti-LGBTQ laws. A boxer from Taiwan, Lin Yu-ting, was subject to a similar controversy over baseless allegations she is transgender.
Trump continued: “Oh, they could fight Iron Mike. I’ll tell ya – Iron Mike would say ‘This is not a good thing.’ I know Iron Mike, and he’s a great guy, Mike Tyson. He’s a good man. Mike’s been through a lot but he could fight, let me tell ya. That guy could fight.”
Trump continued: “Can you imagine Mike - “ before, apparently responding to someone from the audience, he said: “Oh, he says, ‘Put Mike in the ring with Kamala.’ That will be interesting.”
Tyson has a history of violence against women, including being convicted of rape in the early 1990s, for which he served time in prison, and his first wife alleged that he abused her before they divorced.
Trump has long supported Tyson, including saying that the boxer didn’t deserve to go to prison on the rape charges.
Link Copied!
AlphaFox78's account on X has been posting misinformation
From AlphaFox78/X
An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. The payment was one of several the man said he received from the propagandist — a registered Russian agent — to post on social media in the run-up to the election.
The pro-Trump influencer, who uses the @AlphaFox78 handle on X, is an American man living in Massachusetts, CNN has learned. He agreed to speak to CNN about the posts on condition of anonymity.
The account, which has a history of posting right-wing memes in support of former President Donald Trump, was the first to post the now-debunked video that purportedly showed a Haitian immigrant claiming he would vote at least twice in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Georgia Secretary of State said everything in that video was faked, from the actors to the ID cards, and was produced and disseminated by Russian influence actors.
In phone and text interviews with CNN over multiple days, the person behind the account, which has amassed more than 650,000 followers on X, said he posted the video without fact-checking the claims made in it.
“I don’t have any idea where it came from or anything — I’m just the guy who shared it,” he said.
Simeon Boikov, seen here in a video taken in the Russian consulate in Sydney where he is currently seeking asylum, paid an American X user $100 to post content, some of which has since been deemed Russian disinformation.
From Simeon Boikov
The man said Simeon Boikov, a Russian propagandist podcaster known online as “AussieCossack,” offered him $100 to post the video, which he agreed to. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN that multiple payments were sent from Boikov to the Massachusetts man.
Documents reviewed by CNN show that Boikov is a registered foreign agent for Russia in Australia, where he works for Russian state media, writing and posting online in English and Russian.
Read more about the fake video here.
Link Copied!
Sen. Amy Klobuchar appears on CNN on Monday, November 4.
CNN
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she is positive that Vice President Kamala Harris will win the election on Tuesday and that she thinks people are going to be surprised by how many voters turn out to cast their vote based on their “deep belief in democracy.”
The Minnesota lawmaker, who was with Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz earlier on Monday, told CNN she has noticed high energy across the seven battleground states around Harris and the campaign.
Klobuchar said that other lawmakers and those who have been knocking on doors in key states have said that voters are telling them “they just can’t handle the chaos of Donald Trump.”
“You’re going to be surprised in how many people are turning out and how many people are voting on freedom and their deep belief in democracy even if they don’t agree with everything that’s on the Democratic platform,” she said.
Klobuchar said Harris is ending her campaign with a “positive, optimistic message and Donald Trump is spiraling — and that’s not what we need in a leader right now for this country.”
From the beginning of her candidacy, Klobuchar said, Harris united the party and then started reaching out to Independents and Republicans.
Link Copied!
Vice President Kamala Harris makes a stop at the home of a family in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Pool
Vice President Kamala Harris went door knocking in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she stopped by two homes to greet voters.
At the first home, Harris greeted a couple who had an adult son with the same name as her stepson, Cole. At the second home, Harris greeted a woman and her husband.
“It’s the day before the election, but I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote,” Harris told them.
The woman told Harris “you got my vote already,” adding that she will be working the polls tomorrow. She also explained that her husband will be voting for Harris on Election Day.
Reading is one of the five scheduled stops for Harris across Pennsylvania on Monday, ending in Philadelphia.
Strategy in final hours before Election Day: Harris and senior campaign staffers have directed staffers to keep their heads down and focus on mobilizing voters, according to a Harris adviser, capitalizing on what the campaign argues is momentum on their side.
Earlier Monday, Harris thanked volunteers at a canvassing event in Scranton, Pennsylvania.“What you all are signing up to do today, and what you’ve been doing, like let’s enjoy it,” she said.
“Let’s get out the vote,” Harris chanted before telling the crowd: “Let’s win.”
But while officials remain cautiously optimistic, they acknowledge it will be a close race — and a potentially lengthy process.
“People are swinging between holy smokes we could win to it’s a toss-up to nobody knows,” one source familiar with the dynamic told CNN. In a call with reporters Monday, the Harris campaign offered its views on the timing of election results, suggesting that the team will remain “calm and confident” as votes come in.
Remember what’s at stake: Pennsylvania is the most important battleground state of the 2024 election. Both Harris and Donald Trump have made the commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes central to their respective paths to victory. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since George H.W. Bush in 1988. In 2020, Joe Biden, a Pennsylvania native, flipped the state. According to AdImpact, Pennsylvania voters have seen nearly $300 million worth of presidential advertising – the most of any state in the nation.
Link Copied!
At his third of four battleground stops on Monday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance looked to again tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the Biden administration’s record as he boasted about the “big tent” support for former President Donald Trump on Monday.
“The whole argument of their campaign is that Tim Walz and Kamala Harris have nothing to do with the policies of the last three months, even though Kamala Harris is the sitting vice president of the United States,” he told the crowd in Atlanta.
“When you put a teleprompter in front of her, Kamala Harris will talk a big game about what she’s going to do. And I think all of us are saying, Kamala, if you want to do all these things, why haven’t you done them already?” Vance said.
As he often does, Vance called the Republican Party “big tent,” mentioning Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former US Ambassador Nikki Haley, the latter who never ended up joining Trump on the campaign trail despite CNN previously reporting she was in talks to appear with him potentially at a Fox News town hall in late October.
“We’ve got in this commonsense movement, we’ve got the lieutenant governor and the governor of Georgia, Nikki Haley on the right, and Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy on the left. This is a big tent, my friends. So, it’s not just red team versus blue team,” Vance said.
While Kemp is supporting Trump, he didn’t vote for him in the Republican primary. As CNN previously reported, Kemp refused to call a special legislative session to help Trump as he sought overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
Link Copied!
Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign event on November 4 in Atlanta.
John Bazemore/AP
While speaking at a rally in Atlanta, GOP Sen. JD Vance on Monday urged Georgia voters to get out and vote as he pointed at the narrow victory for President Joe Biden there in 2020.
“So here’s the thing, we’re done with early voting in the state of Georgia, so tomorrow is the day,” Vance said, adding that it is the day to vote for change, lower grocery prices, more affordable housing, to close the border and “tomorrow is the day to make Donald Trump president of the United States.”
Early voting in Georgia ended on Friday and Republican election officials’ efforts to slow the tide of election misinformation have been hampered by deep mistrust between them and fellow conservatives.
He pointed out that Biden narrowly won the Peach State in 2020. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than 1 percentage point, becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in nearly three decades.
“So here’s the request that I’m going to make of every single person here. I want every single one of you again to get out there and vote for Donald J. Trump 10 times,” he joked, claiming that line would get him headlines for voter fraud.
“The legal way to vote 10 times is to get your friends to the polls and take yourself to the polls and get nine of your friends and family to go along with you,” he said.
Vance also hit Harris over the Biden administration’s policies, using dark rhetoric to describe immigration in Georgia, before also making a call for unity, saying “to not discard lifelong family relationships” or friendships “because people vote the wrong way.”
He added, “in two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, DC, and the trash is named Kamala Harris.”
Link Copied!
Elon Musk speaks at a town hall at the Roxain Theater on October 20, in Pittsburgh. Musk also awarded an attendee $1 million dollars during the event.
Michael Swensen/Getty Images
A Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday that Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to voters can continue, in a victory for the tech billionaire, though the sweepstakes is set to end Tuesday on Election Day.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta rejected arguments from the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, who argued that the sweepstakes was an illegal lottery that violated state law and must be halted immediately.
Link Copied!
Eli Witherby, a 20-year-old valet in Philadelphia, cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump, while his girlfriend cast hers for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions,” Witherby said. “At the end of the day, I’m gonna stick to my guns.”
Two rowers, they met through mutual friends, and while they don’t talk politics too much, Witherby said they respect each other’s different views.
“I love her very much. We’re a great couple. We don’t necessarily get into politics too much. We do know where each other stands. But it’s um, it’s interesting,” Witherby said.
Witherby said Harris “wouldn’t be nominated for the presidential race if she was an idiot.”
“She’s a smart woman. She’s very intelligent woman, but I believe that we need someone else who’s smarter, intelligent, who’s done it before,” he told CNN.
One factor motivating Witherby to support Trump is the economy. “Everything was cheaper,” he said, referencing in particular the price of gasoline.
Witherby, who lives in Philadelphia but is originally from Oklahoma, sees Democrats as “very polarizing” and didn’t appreciate President Joe Biden’s “garbage” gaffe.
Witherby said he’s over the name-calling on both sides and that he was encouraged by the vice presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz.
“The vice presidential debate was a breath of fresh air,” he said. “It gave me confidence for the future, if we had those two running for the presidency, that it would be, you know, I don’t have to worry about someone’s character being insulted on national television.”
Link Copied!
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is speaking now in Atlanta.
The Republican senator from Ohio arrived in the battleground state of Georgia to talk to voters about immigration and the economy, according to the campaign’s website, after stops in Flint, Michigan, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Monday.
Georgia political landscape: Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris have a clear advantage in Georgia, according to CNN polls conducted by SSRS, with likely voters in Georgia divide 48% for Trump to 47% for Harris. In 2020, President Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and Arizona since Clinton in 1996.
Link Copied!
Former President Donald Trump on Monday said Vice President Kamala Harris “copied my routine” on Saturday Night Live after Harris appeared on the show over the weekend.
“She uses everything I do. She uses… even Saturday Night Live they copied. They copied. Think of that. Saturday, oh she was great on — they copied my routine, I did it a long time ago, they copied the same routine. I think I did it better, actually. I think anybody could’ve done it. I think anybody could’ve done it better,” Trump said during his rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Harris made an appearance on the show’s cold open on Saturday in a skit where comic and actress Maya Rudolph was playing Harris and talking to the real Harris through a mirror.
Trump appeared on “The Tonight Show” in 2015 and participated in a similar skit where host Jimmy Fallon was playing Trump and talking to the real Trump through a mirror.
Link Copied!
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during her campaign rally, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on November 4.
Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday said she is “proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people” as she rallied in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which includes a sizable Puerto Rican population.
While Harris has largely shied away from mentioning her opponent during this final day of campaigning, her remarks were a subtle rebuttal to the rally former President Donald Trump held recently in Madison Square Garden, which featured a speaker who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
“I am so thankful to everyone for being here, and including he leaders of the Puerto Rican community,” Harris said. “I stand here, proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people, and I will be a president for all Americans.”
“So, Allentown, this is it. Just one more day, one more day, one more day left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and momentum is on our side,” Harris added.
Link Copied!
Workers process absentee ballots at Fulton County Operations Hub and Elections Center, in Atlanta on Monday.
Cheney Orr/Reuters
A divided Georgia Supreme Court on Monday paused a state judge’s ruling that gave more than 3,000 voters in Cobb County several more days to return their absentee ballots after local election officials admitted they were late sending them out.
“The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration (the “Board”) may count only those absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024,” the court said in a brief order. Three justices noted their dissent from the decision, and one justice was disqualified.
The ruling will only affect the voters within a group of some 3,240 who live in the US and don’t get their absentee ballots in on time. Any voters in that group who live overseas will still have their ballots counted as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day and received by November 8.
The Supreme Court’s order directs local election officials to segregate any ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day and before 5 p.m. on November 8 and to not destroy them “until further order of the Court.” Whether those late arrival ballots should be counted at all is a question that will be litigated after the election.
The court’s decision is a major win for Republicans who argued that if the extension issued last week by a Cobb County judge remained intact, “state law is necessarily suspended … for only one group of voters.”
A group of civil rights groups sued the county on Friday over its delay in getting the ballots out in a timely manner, saying it would lead to the disfranchisement of thousands of voters who might not be able to return the ballots in time to be counted. The county said in a statement a day earlier that “a surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications” was to blame for the delay in mailing several thousand of them out.
Link Copied!
The 2024 US election cycle has seen an “unprecedented amount of disinformation,” including falsehoods “aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” a top US cyber official said on Monday.
“There is a firehose of disinformation that the American people have been subjected to, continue to be subjected to,” Jen Easterly, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters in an update on the threat environment a day before Election Day.
During the early voting period, there have also been “small-scale” incidents, such as the destruction of ballot drop boxes and low-level cyberattacks, but “nothing that has the potential to materially impact the outcome of the presidential election,” Easterly said.
On Monday, multiple widely viewed posts on social media platform X featured fabricated election-related content purporting to come from major news outlets like CNN and CBS.
CNN reported on Saturday that CISA has retreated from some of the key work it did in the 2020 election to counter false and viral information about voting spread by Americans.
Asked if CISA plans to rebut false information about the election process spread by former President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, Easterly did not directly answer the question.
“It is very unfortunate and very irresponsible for anybody of (a) position of influence, of authority — regardless of party or politics — to be spreading inaccurate information about our elections,” she said generally. “It is corrosive to our democracy; it does the work of our foreign adversaries for them and it’s creating very real threats to election officials of both parties.”
Link Copied!
Former President Donald Trump holds up a fist at a campaign rally at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Advisers, allies and aides have all implored former President Donald Trump to stay on message in the final day of his campaign, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
While there is an overall belief that nearly all voters have made up their mind with one day to go until Election Day, some close to Trump fear any unplanned, inappropriate or insulting rhetoric could potentially cause voters to stay home in a race where every vote counts.
Yesterday in Pennsylvania, after Trump spent more than 20 minutes sowing doubt about the 2024 election, he suggested he wouldn’t mind people someone “shooting through the fake news” to get to him, in reference to his two assassination attempts. He also said he shouldn’t have left the White House.
“How hard is it to get up there and said “Kamala broke it and I’ll fix it,” one ally said, expressing frustration at Trump’s comments.
Senior advisers assured allies that Trump was aware of what was at stake. Later in the day Sunday and Monday morning he appeared to stick mainly to his prewritten remarks.
Sources also said that allies had advised Trump to keep it tight and not deviate from the script too much, noting that his lengthy remarks were also an issue. Trump was two hours late for an event in North Carolina on Sunday, and by the time he started speaking, rally attendees were already leaving.
Link Copied!
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, center, speaks to reporters during a tour of the ballot counting center in Philadelphia, on October 25.
Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters/FILE
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt reiterated on Monday that it may take some time before all eligible votes are counted in the key battleground state.
The Department of State “has never had final, official results on Election Night” regardless of when other projections come in, Schmidt said.
Pennsylvania’s process for counting mail-in ballots is one reason why Schmidt said he cannot predict what percentage of eligible votes will be counted on Election Day and warned that it may take several days to know the official results.
“Nearly 2 million mail-in ballots have already been returned,” Schmidt said, but cautioned that, unlike several other states, Pennsylvania counties cannot start opening mail-in ballots until 7:00 a.m. ET on Election Day.
Counties will start submitting unofficial results once polls close around 8 p.m. local time and will continue to update those numbers throughout the night and the days that follow, he added.
“All registered voters will have a chance to make their voices heard,” Schmidt said, urging the public to verify that election information is coming from trustworthy sources.
Link Copied!
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expressed confidence about the outcome of the election and drew contrasts between his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump.
“We’re going to elect a new generation of leadership with Kamala Harris. A new way forward,” Walz said.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate was speaking at an event in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Monday.
He said that Harris’ speech last week on the Ellipse was what a president should sound like. He contrasted that with Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden where speakers made a series of violent and vulgar remarks.
“It may feel like we’re running like everything’s on the line – because it is,” Walz said.
Walz talked about Harris’ background of being raised by a single mother and becoming a prosecutor who fought for other people. He said the vice president would be able to bring that experience to the White House to help Americans.
“She and I want to build an economy that if you work hard, you don’t just barely skate by, you get a chance to get ahead,” Walz said, which includes people from all parts of the country. “Everybody in this country should get a shot to succeed.”
He later told dozens of people gathered in an overflow room after the event that “the blue wall must hold,” and emphasized the importance of getting people to the polls.
“All of the work, all of the ads, all the money, all the rhetoric really comes down to operationally how many people we get to the polls,” Walz said.
This post has been updated with additional comments from Walz. CNN’s Aaron Pellish in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, contributed reporting.
Link Copied!
A fake image showing fabricated vote results from CNN of Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump in Texas has been viewed millions of times on the social media platform X.
“This image is completely fabricated and manipulated and it never aired on any CNN platform,” CNN said in a statement posted on X.
But by Monday afternoon the fake image had been viewed at least 10 million times on X, shared mostly by pro-Trump paid and “verified” accounts, which means the posts have broader reach.
Many of the accounts are falsely claiming the faked image shows plans to “steal” the election, or that CNN “accidentally” aired the image, which even in its faked form, shows an incomplete vote count.
This post has been updated with new details.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the fake image.
Link Copied!
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is speaking at an event in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, a key battleground state for Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to the White House.
Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied in the presidential election, according to the polling. Both campaigns have spent significant time and money in the Badger state.
Link Copied!
The DC National Guard has been approved to assist DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services starting on Election Day through the following week, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Monday.
“(Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin) approved a request last week from the District of Columbia for DC National Guard troops to support the DC fire and emergency medical services from November 5 through 13,” Ryder said. Ryder noted that this is a routine practice for the Department of Defense to authorize the DC National Guard “to support or augment security for large scale events in the district, and activated guardsmen will remain under the command and control of the DC National Guard.”
Ryder added that roughly 60 Guardsmen from six other states have been activated to support their states — though he did not say which states that included. Hundreds of other guardsmen are on standby to assist if needed, he said.
Link Copied!
Election supplies are loaded into a voting tent set up by FEMA the day before the US presidential election, in Burnsville, North Carolina, on Monday.
Allison Joyce/AFP/Getty Images
A strong cold front will push east on Election Day, bringing rain to the critical battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan with a widespread area of rain stretching from the Great Lakes to East Texas.
Rainfall has been noted to slightly reduce voter turnout in previous elections.
Wisconsin looks to have the worst weather of CNN’s seven battleground states, with widespread showers and even thunderstorms that could produce isolated wind gusts more than 60 mph and a brief tornado.
Warm temperatures will create mild conditions for voters in eastern states, with record highs expected in Detroit (77 degrees F), Pittsburgh (81) and Albany, Georgia (86).
ARIZONA: Temperatures are seasonal, or a bit cooler than average through Tuesday. Phoenix: Mostly sunny, cool. High: 73. Low: 50. Winds: E 5-10 mph.
GEORGIA: Temperatures will climb around 10 degrees above average with record warm highs in the 80s for southern Georgia. Atlanta: Mostly cloudy but dry. High: 78. Low: 64. Winds: SE 10-15 mph.
MICHIGAN: Skies stay overcast with healthy rain chances, especially for western parts of the state. Grand Rapids: Rain likely. High: 70 (Record 75 set in 1978). Low: 49. Winds: SSW 10-15 G 25 mph. Detroit: Mostly cloudy, breezy. Rain arrives late. High: 77 (Record 74 set in 2022). Low: 54. Winds: SSW 15-20 G 40 mph.
NEVADA: It stays dry, sunny, and seasonal with temperatures right around average. Las Vegas: Mostly sunny. High: 69. Low: 47. Winds: Light and variable.
NORTH CAROLINA: Temperatures will be well above November’s average with highs in the middle and upper 70s. Raleigh: Mostly sunny, warm. High: 78. Low: 59. Winds: SE 5-10 mph.
PENNSYLVANIA: A few clouds may roll in, but it stays incredibly warm and dry. Pittsburgh: Mostly sunny, very warm. High: 81 (Record 80 set in 1948). Low. 63. Winds: S 6-15 mph.
WISCONSIN: Rain chances are high with totals mostly at or under 1 inch. Milwaukee: Rain likely. High: 65 (Record 73 set in 1978). Low: 41. Winds: SSW 15-20 mph.
Link Copied!
Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking to voters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, ahead of polls closing on Election Day.
Her visit to Allentown is the second of several she plans to make throughout Pennsylvania on the eve of Election Day. That state is considered one of the most important battlegrounds this election cycle.
Link Copied!
Hundreds of Harris supporters wait in line to attend the Harris-Walz Crossing Rally & Concert in Philadelphia, on Monday.
Bastiaan Slabbers/Sipa USA
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on the eve of the Election Day will host a series of interconnected “Get Out The Vote” events across battleground states — featuring famous artists and speakers, according to the campaign.
The series of organizing events in all seven battleground states is “meant to capture the grassroots enthusiasm” and each event will be tied together with a national live stream show.
“We’ll have elected officials and performers and speakers that really reach such a wide network across all social media platforms, helping to make sure that our message is breaking through in these final hours to voters that maybe are harder to reach or less engaged,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters Monday.
O’Malley added that the events are meant to serve as “a massive mobilization and volunteer engagement opportunity. We’ll have organizing packet drop offs as part of it, of course, we would end with a big event that has a true organizing component to it. Front row seats are going to be given to folks who have completed phone banking and door knocking shifts over the last few days.”
Link Copied!
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to spend Election Day conducting radio interviews across battleground states, her campaign says, as she works to convince any remaining undecided voters to cast ballots for her in the final day of the campaign.
After stumping in every swing state over the past week, Harris will be in Washington as the voting concludes. But she hopes to make one final push on the airwaves to anyone who hasn’t yet voted as she prepares for the results to start coming in.
Harris’ communications director Michael Tyler said the interviews are intended to make sure “that those final voters who are on their way to work, on their way home taking a lunch break, understand the stakes, but understand her vision for where she wants to take this country over the course of the next four years.”
The Harris campaign views its final-day mission both to convince any remaining undecided voters to support Harris while also mobilizing those who may not be regular or reliable voters to get to a polling station.
“We’re very focused on making sure if you’re just tuning in, we’re going to deliver a message to you,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said. “If you’re someone that just has, like, a crazy, busy, hectic life and a lot going on tomorrow, we’re going to make sure we try to get to you so that you have the easiest way for you to go vote.”
Link Copied!
Poll workers demonstrate how ballots will be processed on election day during a press tour of the Philadelphia election warehouse on October 25.
Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign continues to believe it has “multiple pathways” to 270 electoral votes and has not closed out any potential paths at this stage, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Monday.
The path through the so-called “Blue Wall” states – Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – remains the “most straightforward path,” but the campaign sees “equally favorable” paths in Sun Belt states, she said.
The Harris campaign also offered its views on the timing of election results, suggesting that the team will remain “calm and confident” as votes come in – during what could potentially be a lengthy process.
Early in the night on Tuesday: The Harris campaign expects “most of the results from Georgia and North Carolina” will come in relatively early, said O’Malley Dillon, noting that if those states are close “it might not be called until later.” The campaign also expects “near complete results” relatively early from Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and Colorado. At this point in the evening, the campaign is cautioning that “everyone should be very careful not to over-index on these results in any one state.”
By the end of the night Tuesday: The Harris campaign expects “near-complete results” from Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan, and “partial results” from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
By Wednesday morning: The Harris campaign expects “most results” from Wisconsin by Wednesday morning, as well as “additional results from Pennsylvania and potentially Michigan,” O’Malley Dillon said.
On Wednesday and beyond: The Harris campaign said additional results will be coming in “from Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada,” as well as a “small number of remaining ballots tabulated” in other battleground states.
“Keep in mind that some ballots will continue to be counted for many days,” O’Malley Dillon cautioned.
Link Copied!
Residents of Mecklenburg County wait in line to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting, in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
The executive director of North Carolina’s elections board pleaded with candidates to accept the results of the election at a news conference Monday.
Karen Brinson Bell said this year her state has done more planning for possible threats than in past elections.
“I would just make a plea to the candidates and election officials: Have a peaceful transition of power. Accept the results. Concede defeat, when necessary,”Brinson Bell said, adding that the election is administered by bipartisan community members who have sworn oaths to ensure that results are determined accurately.
Brinson Bell said some election offices have installed panic buttons and further secured entrances ahead of the election.
“I’ve worked in elections for nearly 19 years now, and post-election hostility, threats, harassment were not something that we planned for, for most of my career, but it certainly has become the case,” she said.
She also referenced harassment and threats officials in Georgia, Arizona and Michigan and other battleground states faced after the 2020 election.
“We have tried to learn from them, understand the relationships that we need to have with law enforcement,” Brinson Bell said. “What we’ve done is to prepare as best we can and consider it more of an insurance policy that we hope we never have to exercise.”
Even with that added security, Brinson Bell said the state remains committed to transparency, and she invited people with questions to come and observe checks on tabulator systems and canvass meetings where results are presented to board members.
“Understand why we are able to certify these elections,” she said.
Link Copied!
Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media company roared higher on the final day before the US presidential election.
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), the parent company of Truth Social, surged 16% Monday. There was no apparent catalyst for the increase.
The stock has been highly volatile since it went public in March: It quadrupled in value over a five-week span before plunging by 41% over the past three trading sessions.
Traders have used Trump’s stock as a kind of barometer for the former president’s perceived reelection chances. The company’s shares do not trade on the fundamental health of the company’s business, which is minuscule by comparison with its better-known rivals such as X, TikTok and Instagram.
Although polls show the presidential race remains extremely tight, online betting markets in recent weeks have given Trump the edge over Vice President Kamala Harris, and market analysts credit the Trump stock’s increase to the trend in prediction sites.
Similarly, when Harris began to make a comeback in online betting markets, Trump’s media stock began to implode. The precipitous decline shaved $2.4 billion off Trump’s net worth between Wednesday and Friday, cutting deeply into the $3.6 billion in gains Trump made during the previous month.
Monday’s gains added about a half billion dollars back to Trump’s net worth.
Link Copied!
Sen. J.D. Vance speaks to supporters during a rally in Flint, Michigan, on Monday.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
At his final event in Michigan before Election Day, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said a second Trump administration would protect the Michigan auto industry, while Vice President Harris would destroy it with electric vehicle mandates.
He claimed that “when Kamala Harris talks about the electric vehicle mandate, you know that would destroy 117,000 Michigan auto worker jobs.”
“When she attacks Donald J. Trump for wanting to impose tariffs to protect the Michigan auto industry, she’s telling you exactly who she’s going to fight for. She’s going to fight for electric vehicles made in communist China. We’re going to fight for Michigan auto workers and all of the middle-class families who depend on those jobs,” Vance said.
As CNN’s Daniel Dale previously reported, the number of people employed in auto manufacturing in Michigan has increased by about 15% under the Biden-Harris administration; it is now at its highest level since 2007, though the number of people employed in auto parts manufacturing in the state has fallen about 6%.
As Axios reported in September, Harris’ campaign would not say if she supports mandates on electric and hydrogen vehicles by 2035. The campaign has said she does not support a mandate on electric vehicles.
Some more context: United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has emerged as a prominent backers and aggressive advocate of Harris, frequently slamming Trump’s labor policies and warning that second Trump administration would be damning to the movement.
Link Copied!
A man walks at the Fulton County Operations Hub and Elections Center in Atlanta, on Monday.
Cheney Orr/Reuters
As Fulton County prepares for another Election Day under the microscope, several security procedures are in place to help secure the counting process, officials said Monday.
Memory sticks from polling locations will arrive at the Fulton County elections hub with a police escort, officers will be in place at the elections hub 24 hours-a-day, and cameras will be recording various steps in the tabulation process (although those cameras will not be live-streamed).
As the county prepares to tally ballots, it’s also grappling with legal challenges from the Republican National Committee over hundreds of absentee ballots that were hand-delivered over the weekend. Those ballots are being segregated amid pending litigation.
“We get sued every day,” said Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. “We are prepared. There will be no basis for any challenge.”
Officials said they will also remain vigilant about identifying possible misinformation, though they lamented that those efforts eat up election workers’ time and attention.
“You asked if it takes away the time from the staff, and it does,” said Nadine Williams, director of registration and elections in Fulton County. “Unfortunately, that’s our biggest challenge is misinformation, to have to answer calls and emails about things that are not true.”
Link Copied!
People wait in line to vote during early voting at a polling station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Sunday.
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images
The first wave of unofficial results of battleground Michigan could start coming in as early as Tuesday night, the Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters on Monday. The last polls will close at 9 p.m. ET.
Those first numbers will include votes cast in person at early vote centers, she said, since those ballots were immediately put into tabulators, as well as from absentee ballots that have already been returned and tabulated, thanks to Michigan’s new law that allows for early tabulation. More than 80% of absentee ballots sent to voters have already been returned.
Voters can still return their mail ballots to their local clerk’s office or a ballot drop box before 8 p.m. tomorrow. In-person, same-day voter registration is also an option for people showing up at polling places.
She reminded reporters that in 2020, Michigan had 3.3 million citizens vote early and 2.2 million show up on Election Day, but clerks weren’t able to pre-process absentee ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. Clerks in Michigan’s larger municipalities were able to start processing and tabulating as early as a week ago.
The secretary of state said she is “optimistic and hopeful” she would have results earlier than in 2020.
Benson said based on the trends her office is seeing now, “we’re on pace to see another high turnout election” in Michigan. Nearly 3.2 million people have already voted, which amounts to about 44% of active registered voters. More than 1.2 million of those voters took advantage of the state’s new in-person early voting option.
Link Copied!
The FBI has established an election command post in Washington, DC, to monitor and respond to election-related threats in the lead-up to and after the election in coordination with state, local and federal partners.
The office is staffed by 80 people per shift across a dozen agencies and will run 24-hours a day every day this week as election results come in.
The office is not looking to curtail free speech or monitor social media, James Barnacle, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, told reporters Monday during a walk-through of the command post.
“However, when information is threatening, and it rises to the violation of federal laws, then we look to take action,” Barnacle said.
Barnacle said that there has been a slight increase in threats reported to the center compared to past elections.
“The threat reporting that we’re getting in here is a little more – not a huge volume increase,” Barnacle said. “People are more aware of reporting information to the FBI.”
The threats, Barnacle said, include those to election workers, cyber threats and foreign malign influence campaigns, including from Russia, China and Iran as those countries are “looking to undermine democracy, sow discord and undermine Washington’s standing in the world.”
The command post brings different experts together as well as law enforcement partners so that information around threats can quickly be disseminated to officers on the ground, Barnacle added. FBI offices across the country will all be running their own command posts this week as well, which will coordinate with the national command post in DC.
Link Copied!
Supporters watch as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Vice President Kamala Harris is working to present a vision of unity and togetherness as she rallies across Pennsylvania with less than a day to go until the election.
“What you are all signing up to do today, and what you’ve been doing - like, let’s enjoy it, you know?” Harris said to people who will be canvasing on her behalf.
Speaking near Scranton, she added: “We are a people-driven campaign, and we love the people and we see in the face of a stranger and neighbor, right? And that’s the spirit of what we are doing.”
The event at Montage Mountain Resorts marks her first of five campaign events today. The vice president again avoided saying her Republican rival’s name, instead referring to Donald Trump as “the other guy.”
“There’s a huge difference between me and the other guy, which everybody here knows, which is why you are here to help us get out the vote,” Harris said.
The divisiveness in contemporary American politics, Harris said, “makes people feel alone.”
“And so the way I’ve always been thinking about our campaign in these next 24 hours is, as we are getting out the vote, as we are canvassing, let’s be intentional about building community, about building community, about building coalitions, about reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us.”
The post was updated with more of Harris’ remarks from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Link Copied!
The mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said that the Harris-Walz campaign’s ground game in the key battleground state “is what’s going to make the difference” this cycle, arguing that they seem to be outperforming the GOP.
“We saw almost or over a million doors knocked in Pennsylvania over the past two days. Over the past weekend, I was here in Allentown on Saturday and Sunday, and saw hundreds of volunteers from across the country knocking on doors in Allentown,” Democratic Mayor Matthew Tuerk told CNN on Monday.
He said volunteers were also knocking on voters’ doors in other areas of the sate, including along the route from Allentown to Philadelphia.
Tuerk also predicted that comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments comparing Puerto Rico as “garbage” during former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden will alienate voters — particularly in Allentown, with its significant Puerto Rican population.
“I mean, people take it very seriously. It’s, it is a big deal, and it’s
Comments
0 comment